Byd Company Ltd.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary        

1.        Company Overview        

2.        Battery Production at BYD        

2.1        Comparison to Competitors        

2.2        Product and Process Development        

2.3        Human Resources        

3.        Steps toward Integration        

3.1        Qinchuan Auto Company        

4.        Case Analysis        

5.        Recommendations        

List of Figures

Figure 1: Expected Growth in Production Volume till 2020…………………………………….        

List of Tables

No table of figures entries found.

Executive Summary

BYD Company Ltd. was founded by Wang Chuan-Fu in 1995 in Shenzhen, China. Wang’s aim was “to make better batteries for electronic products”. In addition, his aim was to improve quality while keeping the price low in order to compete in the high end of the market. The investments paid off; by 1997, BYD had over 1000 employees and started winning business from foreign companies.

This early success led Wang to investigate the potential of newer technologies; Li-ion batteries. At the time, he had around 20 employees in R&D; two thirds on process design and the remainder on battery chemistry. Along their working process, BYD’s engineers discovered that the chemicals Sanyo used in its batteries were very sensitive to the levels of humidity, where Sanyo overcame this problem by manufacturing its batteries in a dry room. Six months later, BYD developed a combination that worked effectively in its facility without the need for dry-room capacity. The primary aim of process development was to avoid the need for BYD to invest in expensive equipment, such as robotic arms used for materials handling. Instead, it aimed to substitute direct labor for them. By 2002, BYD was among the top four manufacturers worldwide and was the largest Chinese manufacturer.